[paulpauper]

He's pretty much describing why Microsoft has been a great investment

That's why large information technology companies have profit margins of 20+% and seem immune to business cycles and macro factors. They just keep printing cash even as other sectors ebb and flow. Microsoft, google, facebook, have huge profit margins and have been good investments.

It’s a sunk cost. If your investment doesn’t pan out, you don’t have physical assets like machinery that you can sell off to recoup some of your money.

But you can sell intellectual property.

[nokk]

Intellectual property grants companies essential monopolies over what they create as well as lets them pay very low taxes. No wonder they are doing well.

The trillion dollar question is what is going to happen in the long run. We know that prosperity is largely a factor of how well you spread technology and wealth. Which I don't think many countries, other than arguably China, manages to do when it comes to intellectual property.

And if the last half century was infrastructure and industry this half century is information and intellectual property. So it is essential to get this right since it might determine whether you get to be Norway or Thailand in the next century.